U.S. Treasury Awards $60 Million in New Market Tax Credits to LISC

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The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, part of the U.S. Treasury Department, announced the recipients of $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocations for 2019. The awards include $60 million for LISC, which will be deployed through its subsidiary, the New Markets Support Company (NMSC). Since its inception, NMSC has harnessed $1 billion in tax credits to offer flexible capital for projects that benefit low-income communities across the country--projects ranging from Cincinnati’s CityLink Center, home to 15 social service agencies, to a health clinic-plus-grocery store in Brockton, Mass. to a public library in Petersburg, Va.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credits today that will spur investment and economic growth in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide. A total of 73 Community Development Entities (CDEs) were awarded tax credit allocations, made through the calendar year (CY) 2018 round of the New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program).

"The New Markets Tax Credit is a powerful economic development tool that attracts private capital into hard-to-finance businesses in distressed communities nationwide," said CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris. "Today's awards will finance projects ranging from large manufacturing plants to grocery and retail stores that will create jobs and provide critically needed goods and services to residents of Low-Income Communities. One-fifth (20 percent) of the investments resulting from today's awards will be made in rural communities."

The 73 CDEs receiving awards today were selected from a pool of 214 applicants that requested an aggregate total of $14.8 billion in tax credit allocation authority. The award recipients are headquartered in 35 different states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. It is estimated that these award recipients will make more than $682 million in New Markets Tax Credit investments in non-metropolitan counties.

Today's announcement brings the total amount awarded through the NMTC Program to $57.5 billion. Historically, NMTC Program awards have generated $8 of private investment for every $1 invested by the federal government. Through the end of fiscal year 2017, the most recent data available, NMTC Program award recipients deployed more than $48.6 billion in investments in low-income communities and businesses; with impacts such as the creation or retention of more than 800,000 jobs, and the construction or rehabilitation of more than 205 million square feet of commercial real estate.